


And Then He Became Stretch

by Snakehands, SoloShikigami



Series: A Skeleton's Despair [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Puns & Word Play, Underswap Papyrus (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24972397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snakehands/pseuds/Snakehands, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoloShikigami/pseuds/SoloShikigami
Summary: Part of the Skeleton's Despair series.Stretch wakes up in the Undertale universe to find a not-too-surprised Sans. Worried about getting back home, Sans decides to step in and the two team up to create a machine that should allow Stretch to get back home, and hopefully back to his little brother.
Series: A Skeleton's Despair [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1807543
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20





	And Then He Became Stretch

**Author's Note:**

> Start with ["A King's Plan."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24594925/chapters/59408788) when you're ready for the beginning of Blue's adventure!

_He was right there, his little brother was right there. He was reaching for him, why wouldn’t their hands touch? Why was he drifting away? Where was he going?! What was happening?!?_

“ _SANS!_ ”

Papyrus sat up in bed, sweat beading on his forehead, breathing hard.

Was it all another nightmare? Most of his nightmares involved the Human, Judgement Hall, his brother’s head being lopped clean off…

He stretched his back, finding it feeling unbelievably stiff; he knew his mattress wasn’t the best but still?

“Sleep well, Stretch?”

“Yeah, bro,” he said with a yawn. “You sound a bit tired, Sans.”

“Well, you got my name right, but I ain’t your bro, pal.”

Papyrus looked over and saw a skeleton that looked pretty similar to his brother, but most definitely was not. He screamed and scrambled backwards until he hit the wall.

“Dude! Calm down!” Sans said, glancing at the bedroom door before putting his hands up in a placating way. “I should be the one losing it; I wake up to find a weird monster that looks like a lazy version of my bro, and _you’re_ the one screaming? Tone it down, Stretch.”

He blinked. “Stretch?”

“Well, you kinda look like my bro, but, stretched out - you gotta be at least six inches taller than him,” Sans shrugged. “I dunno, saw you stretch, and it seemed right.”

“My name is Papyrus.”

“Yeah, so is my bro. Would be a little confusing to call you both Papyrus.”

“I suppose so.”

“Now, are you gonna explain? I don’t make a habit of having strange monsters in my bed besides me.”

Stretch blushed a little and took a deep breath, as he was feeling shaky.

“Stars, I could use a smoke,” he muttered.

“No can do, bud.”

Sans scooted off of the bed to give Stretch some room, and went to lean against his treadmill with his hands in his pockets.

“I, I don’t know how I got here,” Stretch said, rubbing his eye-sockets. “I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”

“Snowdin. You have a bro called Sans?”

“Yeah.”

“He looks like me, I assume?”

“A bit; you guys sound alike, and your faces are similar.”

“Do you remember what you were doing before you woke up?”

“I’m not sure,” Stretch scratched the back of his head a he thought. “I… I think we were going to visit Alphys and Undyne, we went to Undyne’s lab in Hotland and-!”

“Wait, wait, you mean Alphys’ lab?”

“No, Undyne’s. Alphys is the Captain of the Royal Guard, she doesn’t have a lab.”

“Weird. Sorry, go on.”

“Uhm, well, we got there, but something was off; the other two didn’t seem to be there, the ground shook, we both, uh, fell, and… and…”

Stretch trailed off, giving Sans a hopeless look before sighing and holding his head in his hands. Sans frowned a little and shifted uncomfortably.

“That’s a tough one, pal,” he murmured.

“Yeah,” Stretch moved so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. “So, uh, why aren’t you more freaked out by this? You’re awfully calm.”

“Eh, don’t get me wrong, I woke up next to ya and had my own freak-out session; I don’t mind a good cuddle but I’d like to know my cuddle buddy’s name,” Sans said with a wink. “And I guess, I dunno, on one hand it sorta doesn’t surprise me?” he gave Stretch a meaningful look. “Do timelines mean anything to you, bud?”

“The Human and resets?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“A’ight. I’ve looked into the possibility that there were alternate dimensions, maybe other timelines, but it was really more of Alphys’ thing. If what I’m gathering from what you’ve said is correct, my Alphys is your Undyne.”

“I think so.”

A sharp, loud knock on Sans’ door startled them both.

“SANS! IT IS TIME TO GET UP, LAZYBONES! NO BOONDOGGLING TODAY! I HAVE A GOOD FEELING THAT TODAY IS THE DAY THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN!”

“Would you say you, _feel it in your bones_ , bro?” Sans called out, his grin widening.

Stretch would have laughed if he wasn’t still calming down.

_It’s so weird! I don’t really sound like that, do I?_ Stretch wondered.

“I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOUR HORRIBLE PUNS TODAY! NOW GET DRESSED AND COME DOWNSTAIRS SO YOU CAN HAVE MY SPECIAL BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI!”

“Sure, bro, be right there.”

Papyrus’ retreating footsteps were loud enough to make Stretch wonder how they didn’t hear him coming.

“Isn’t my bro the coolest?” Sans said, shooting his grin at Stretch.

“Very,” he murmured. “Wow, it’s so freaky, he acts just like my bro.”

“I see. Well, come on, if we keep him waiting too long he’s certain to get _rattled_. Heh heh heh.”

“Sure. Though I can tell he doesn’t find your jokes too _humerus_.”

“I’m the _funny bone_ of the family.”

“I guess it’s in your… jeans?”

Sans tilted his head, then Stretch grinned and pulled a pair of denim pants from the balled up pile of blankets and clothes sitting on his bed.

“Nice,” Sans said with a chuckle.

Stretch followed Sans downstairs, it was still so surreal how even their houses were laid out pretty much the same, and he felt nervous again as he approached the kitchen door.

Papyrus had his back to them, bending over to get one of the containers of spaghetti from the bottom shelf.

“Hey bro, why do ducks have tailfeathers?” Sans asked, sauntering over to him.

“I do not know, Sans,” he murmured, sounding distracted.

“To cover up their _butt quacks!_ ”

Sans chuckled as he poked the rounded blue bottom of his Battle Body, making the tall skeleton yelp and jump.

“SANS! THAT IS UNCALLED FOR AN INAPPROPRIATE!” he shouted.

“Heh, couldn’t help it, Pap,” Sans said with a shrug and a wink. “Anyway, I wanna introduce someone to ya.”

“Yes?” Papyrus said, his voice lowered as he turned and saw the other skeleton, gasping and dropping the container.

“Pap, this is Stretch, Stretch, the coolest bone around, my little bro, Papyrus.”

“Yo,” Stretch said with a little awkward wave.

“WOWIE! ANOTHER SKELETON? SANS! YOU DID NOT TELL ME YOU FOUND YOURSELF A BONEFRIEND!”

“Wait, did he just…?” Stretch wondered under his breath, but then he stiffened when Papyrus lifted him as he hugged him tight.

“WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, NEW FRIEND!” Papyrus cried. He grinned and looked Stretch over as he set him down. “WOWIE, YOU LOOK AN AWFUL LOT LIKE ME! BUT OF COURSE MY BROTHER WOULD PICK SUCH A PARTNER!” Papyrus struck a pose. “I DO HAVE QUITE THE STRIKING JAWLINE, AND SANS, WHILE HAVING AN APPALING TASTE IN PUNS, DOES HAVE A SENSE IN GRACE AND STYLE. AFTER ALL, HE DID HELP CREATE MY AWESOME ARMOR!”

Stretch looked over at Sans, a mix of concern and awkwardness, and Sans was too busy silently laughing to catch the look.

“I, I think you have it a bit wrong, uh, Papyrus,” Stretch said, stumbling over the name a little. “Sans and I aren’t dating.”

“Oh,” Papyrus looked a little disappointed, but that only lasted another few seconds before he grinned cheerfully again. “MY GREETING STILL STANDS, FRIEND STRETCH! SIT AND HAVE SOME OF MY WORLD FAMOUS SPAGHETTI!”

Sans gave Stretch an encouraging wink and the two sat at the table.

“Oh, you only have two chairs,” Stretch observed.

“DO NOT FRET! I SHALL STAND!” Papyrus said as he served the spaghetti onto plates. “BONE-APETITE! NYEH, HEH, HEH!”

Stretch quirked a brow-bone at Papyrus; he was a little surprised with how at-ease he felt around another who was essentially himself, though with the same attitude as his brother. He looked down at the spaghetti and had to keep himself from laughing; the tomato sauce was a mixed of smashed vegetables, the spaghetti was either burnt or raw with very little in between, and there was a sprinkling of star-shaped glitter.

He really missed his brother.

Stretch glanced up at Sans, who was lazily turning the spaghetti that he could on his fork, and then when he put it in his mouth, the pasta disappeared. Stretch held back a snicker and tried a bite himself.

“I AM SO GLAD THAT YOU ENJOY MY SPAGHETTI!” Papyrus said, grinning proudly.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Stretch said.

“DON’T YOU WORRY ABOUT ME!” Papyrus waved him off before turning to Sans. “NOW, SANS! I AM GOING TO LEAVE TO GO CALIBRATE MY PUZZLES; BE AT YOUR STATION ON TIME!”

“You got it, bro,” Sans said, scraping the last of his spaghetti off of his plate, but obviously onto the table.

“STRETCH, IT WAS WONDERFUL TO MEET YOU! WILL I BE SEEING YOU LATER?”

“Uhm, sure.”

“GREAT! I SHALL SEE YOU THIS EVENING!”

With that, Papyrus left the house. Sans chuckled and got up and started to put the dishes in the sink.

“Does your bro do the same?” he asked.

“Sort of, he makes tacos.”

Sans turned and leaned against the counter and gave Stretch a long look.

“You look worried, and tired,” Sans said. “You miss your bro, huh?”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah,” he sighed and shuffled over to Stretch. “Whelp, let’s not waste any more time; come with me.”

He held a hand out to Stretch, who looked a little dubious but took it, and the two teleported to Sans’ secret lab behind the house.

“So, you got one of these too, huh?” Stretch said.

“Yep, and my bro doesn’t really know about it, so, you can keep a secret, right?”

“Sure,” Stretch shrugged. “I told my bro about mine, he only comes in when it’s dinner time or something.”

“Yeah,” Sans sighed, and then walked over to a corner. “I think Pap would do the same, and just, I dunno, I don’t want him to worry.”

“Same, but, I suck, because I let him worry,” Stretch sighed. “I gotta get back home, Sans.”

“We’ll get you there. I have some schematics over there, start sorting through them and see if you can find anything useful while I check my notes over here.”

“Right.”

The two skeletons worked all day, with Sans teleporting away now and then to check on his sentry stations. By that evening, they had a general direction, but were still far from finding answers.

*~*~*~*~*

A few weeks had passed, and they were getting closer and closer to finding a way to get Stretch back to his home universe, which made Stretch more and more restless. He slept on the couch, often dozing off to a strange pink version of Napstaton and his movie specials, but now, he often sat up tinkering with the components of the machine that they were hoping would take him home.

“What is that?”

“Ah!”

“I’m terribly sorry, Stretch! My greatness can be overwhelming at times!”

“Oh, hey, Pap.”

Papyrus finished descending the stairs and went to sit next to Stretch. Stretch still felt a little odd around him, a small pull in one way, but an aversion in another. He shrugged it off as the fact that they were the same monster, just under different circumstances.

“So, what is that?” Papyrus asked again, nodding towards the device Stretch held in his hand.

“Well, we’re calling it the Universe Hopper,” Stretch said. “We’re hoping that by locking on to sound waves, ultraviolet light waves and attuning it to my own particles, we can lock onto my universe and it will teleport me back.”

Papyrus nodded and hummed politely to show he was listening, and Stretch couldn’t help laughing a little.

“Do you have any idea what I said?” he asked.

“Not one iota,” Papyrus said with a wide grin. “But it is interesting to hear, none-the-less!”

“Heh, thanks.”

Stretch looked down at the six-by-six inch screen, thumbing at the buttons along the bottom. It was going to be dangerous to actually try it out on himself; he and Sans were being as careful as they could, but nothing was guaranteed.

“I will miss you when you leave,” Papyrus murmured.

“What? Why?”

Stretch was a little surprised, as when the three ate their meals together, he and Sans would throw pun after pun at one another, seeming to throw Papyrus into small mental breakdowns. He also loudly complained about how messy and lazy they were, although since Stretch spent most of his time in the small lab, he wasn’t sure how Papyrus came to the conclusion other than guilt by association.

“It has been nice to see Sans work so fervently at something,” Papyrus said. “He always seems upset. Oh, he doesn’t look it, always smiling and telling his horrible jokes, but I can tell.”

“He just doesn’t want you to worry, you’re his bro, you know?”

“I do know, and I do worry.”

“Sometimes being the big bro is a tough job, Pap. I want my brother to be happy, I don’t want him to worry about the things that I worry about, because it’s not fair to him. He’s a lot like you - training to be in the Royal Guard, he makes awesome puzzles, and the best tacos. I want him to focus on his dreams.”

“But we want to help you, too,” Papyrus said in the quietest voice Stretch had ever heard him use. “If your brother is nearly as great as I am, he will be in the Royal Guard soon, but if it’s at the cost of your happiness, he won’t be happy about it. I know I don’t.”

Papyrus reached over and put a hand over Stretch’s, which stopped him before he could reply. Stretch looked up and saw Papyrus giving him a steady, serious, and pleading look.

“Please include your brother in your worries and concerns,” Papyrus said. “Trust that he is mature enough to handle them; we’re not children anymore, and how can anyone expect us to act like grown-ups if we aren’t treated like grown-ups?”

Stretch sighed, turning his hand over to squeeze Papyrus’ hand.

“I’ll try, Pap, I will try.”

“That’s all that is needed.”

*~*~*~*~*

After another week, the machine was ready for its mission.

“Do you really think it’ll work?” Sans asked.

“I have to believe it will, Sans,” Stretch said.

“IT WILL! I HAVE FAITH IN BOTH OF YOUR ABILITIES TO TINKER WITH STRANGE MACHINES!” Papyrus said.

They were in the shed, as they figured it would be the best place if anything should go awry; close enough to the house, and if it exploded, easier to clean up and fix.

If they survived, that is.

“Well, I guess this is it,” Stretch said after taking a deep breath. “It’s been interesting, and thank you both for everything. I hope I didn’t royally screw something up.”

“I doubt it,” Sans said with a shrug.

“NONSENSE! SANS IS AWAYS HAVING TIME AND SPACE SHENANIGANS AND THINGS ALWAYS SEEM TO BE THE SAME!”

“Heh, yeah.”

Stretch looked at the machine with some trepidation. There was the hope that when he went back, that it would behave like a reset, and that his brother should be back on that principle, or on the principle that he did the same thing Stretch did in whatever universe he ended up in.

“Relax,” Sans said, putting a hand on Stretch’s wrist. “It’ll make the travel easier on you. It’ll be okay. Stay determined and such.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Sans gave his arm a squeeze, a wink, and a thumbs up as he backed away. Papyrus shot forward and gave Stretch a hug before skipping back to stand next to Sans.

“DO NOT FORGET YOUR PROMISE, STRETCH!” Papyrus called out.

“I’ll do my best,” Stretch said with a smile.

“What promise?” Sans asked.

“YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH SECRETS, BROTHER.”

“What’s that supposed to me-!”

Stretch ignored the banter in favor of flipping the machine on. Most of the information was already in, now it was just a matter of activating it. The little antenna rose up, the high-pitched hum of his universe screeched through the little hand-held device, then suddenly he felt like he was being pulled through a tiny hole by the center of his being. The shed, Sans, and Papyrus twirled and faded as if melting into a black hole. He gripped onto the machine, shutting his eyes tight, and hoped for the best.

But then, everything stopped. He slowly opened his eyes, and then gasped as he sat up.

Stretch was home!

“Sans!” he shouted, jumping up from his mattresses, dropping the device on the floor, and rushing down the hall. “Sans, Sans! Wake up, Wake- oh.”

Stretch had burst into the other bedroom, but it was empty. He looked at the clock and saw that it was fairly early in the morning, far too early for sentry duty or training. He ran downstairs, hoping to find his brother in the kitchen making breakfast, but no; he wasn’t there.

“Where could he be?”

**Author's Note:**

> Like what you read? Please check out my social media for more fun!  
> [ My Tumblr](https://soloshikigami.tumblr.com/)  
> [ My Twitter](https://twitter.com/SoloShikigami)


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